With the advent of the computer age, computer and software users have grown accustomed to user-friendly software applications that help them write, calculate, organize, prepare presentations, send and receive electronic mail, make music, and the like. Modern word processing applications, for example, allow users to create and edit a variety of useful documents. Modern desktop publishing applications, for another example, allow users to create a variety of useful documents and presentations such as newspapers, newsletters, brochures, advertisement layouts, stationery, and the like.
Many software applications such as word processing applications, desktop publishing applications, slide presentation applications, spreadsheet applications, and the like allow users to select documents or templates from a collection of pre-prepared documents or templates having pre-populated stylized designs and/or color schemes. For example, a catalogue of documents or templates may be provided from which a user may select a form document or template to prepare a brochure, flyer, advertisement sheet, sign, business card, memorandum, letter, resume and a variety of other helpful and useful documents.
In prior systems, such catalogues of documents are prepared in advance by developers of the providing software application and are presented to a user as a collection of static bitmaps from which the user may select a particular document or template for use. Once the user selects a particular document from the bitmap previews of available documents or templates and opens it in the providing software application, the user may make and save changes to the selected document by changing the pre-prepared stylized designs or color schemes applied to the document.
Unfortunately, because the previews of documents or templates from which the user may choose are provided in static bitmap format, the previews do not update “on the fly” as users change options (e.g., color schemes and stylization) that affect the look of a document or template prior to actual document selection. That is, the user must select a document from the pre-formatted previews, open the document in the application, and then make desired design and theme changes to the selected document. If the user then realizes that the selected document is not the preferred choice, the user must go back to the pre-formatted collection of previews to make another selection.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and system for providing dynamically updated previews of documents or templates as users change options that affect the look of one or more documents or templates prior to selection of a particular document or template for use. It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present invention has been made.